The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-07-13

ter not talk about uncertainties.
But you say, 81 cannot bear to think of
parting from friends here" II you are
old you have more friends in heaven than
here. Just take the census. Take some
large sheet of paper and begin to record
the names OF those who have emigratea
to the other shore; the companions of your
school days, your early business associ-
ates, the friends of mid life and those who
more recently went away. Can it be that
they have been gone SO long you do not
care any more about them and you do nor
want their society? Oh, mol There have
been days when you have felt that you
could not endure it another moment away
from their blessed companionship. They
have gone. You say you would not like
to bring them back TO this world of
trouble, even if you had the power. 1t
would not do to trust you. God would
not give you resurrection power. Before
tomorrow morning you would be rat
Ting at the gates of the cemetery, crying
to the departed: Come back to the cradle
where you slept! Come back to the hall
where you used to playi Come back to
the table where you used to sit" and there
would be great burglary in heaven. No,
not God will not trust you with resur-
rection power, but he compromises the
matter and says: ''You cannot bring them
where you are, but you can go where they
are" There are more lovely now than
ever Were they beautiful here they are
more beautiful there.
Beside that, it is more healthy there for
you than here, aged man; better climate
there than these hot summers and cold
winters and late springs; better hearing;
better eye sight; more tonic in the air;
more perfume in the bloom; more sweet
ness in the song. Do you not feel aged
man, sometimes, as though you would
like to get your arm and foot free? Do
you not feel as though you like to throw
away spectacles and canes and crutchess
Would you not like to fol the spring and
elasticity and mirth of an eternal boy
hood? When the point at which you start
from this world is old age, and the point
to which you go is eternal juvenescence,
aged man, clap your hands at the antici-
patton, and say, in perfect rapture of
soul: 1.-The time Of my departure is at
hand"
remark, again, all those ought to feel
this joy of the text who have holy curl
osity to know what is beyond this earthly
terminus. And who has not any curiosity
about it? Paul, l suppose, had the most
satisfactory view of heaven, and he says;
cit doth not yet appear what we shall be. F"
1t is like looking through a broken tele-
scope: 'Now we see through glass
darby" Can you tell me anything about
that heavenly place? You ask me a
thousand questions about it that l cannot
answer. | ask you thousand questions
about it that you cannot answer. And do
you wonder that Paul was SO glad when
martyrdom gave him a chance to go ovor
and make discoveries in that blessed
country?
hope some day, by the grace of God, to
go over and sec for myself; but not now.
No well man, no prospered man, think,
wants to go now. But the time will come,
/ think, when / shall go over. i want to
see what they do there, and want to see
how they do it. do not want to be look
ing through the gates ajar forever. /
want them to swing open. There are
10000 things / want explained-abOut you,
about myself, about the government
of this world, about God, about
everything. We start in plain
path of THAT we know, and in q
minute come up against a high wall of
what we do not know. 1 wonder how it
looks over there. Somebody tells me it is
like paved city-paved with gold; and
another man tells me it is like fountain,
and it is like tree, and it is like a tri-
umphal procession, and the next man /
meet tells me it is all figurative. / really
want to know, after the body is resur-
| rected, what they wear and what they
eat; and have an unreasonable curiosity
| to know what it is, and how it is, and
| where it is. Columbus risked his life to
| find this continent, aud shall we shudder
to go out on voyage of discovery which
| shall reveal vaster and more different
| country? John Franklin risked his
| life TO find passage between
| icebergs, and shall we dread to find a pas
| sage to eternal summer Men in Swift
zerland travel up the heights of the Mat
| terkorn with alpenstock and guides and
| rockets and ropes, and getting half way
| up, stumble and fall down in horrible
massacre. They just want to say they
| had been on the tops of those high peaks
| And shall we fear to go out for the ascent
| of the eternal hills, which start thou
| sand miles beyond where stop the highest
| peaks of the Alps, and when in that as
| cent there is no peril? A man doomed to
| die stepped on the scaffold and said in joy:
| ''Now, in ten minutes | will know the
| great secret" One minute after the vital
| functions ceased the little child that died
| last night in Montague street knew more
| than Jonathan Edwards, or st. Paul him
| self, before he died Friends, the exit
| from this world or death, if you please to
call it, to the Christian is glorious expla-
| nation. 1t is demonstration. 1t is illu-
mination. 1t is sunburst 1t is the OPEN
| ing of all the windows. 1t is shutting up
the catechism of doubt and the unrolling
| of all the scrolls of positive and ac-
| curate information. Instead of stand
| ing at the foot of the ladder and looking
up, it is standing at the top of the
| ladder and looking down. 1t is the last
| mystery taken outsQf botany, and geology,
| and astronomy, and theology. Oh, will it
| not be grand to have all questions an
| swered? The perpetually recurring inter-
| rogation point changed for the markfof
| exclamation. All riddles solved. Who
| will fear togo out on that discovery when
| all the questions are to be decided which
| we have been discussing all our lives?
| Who shall not clap his hands in the anti
cipation of that blessed country, if it be
no better than through holy curiosity, cry
| ing: 1.-The time of my departure is at
| hand" 81.
l remark, again, we ought to have the
| joy of the text, because, leaving this
| world, we move into the best society of
the universe. You see great crowd of
| people IN some street, and you say:
who is passing there? What general,
/ what prince Is going up theres' WE'LL
| see great throng in heaven. say: "Who
| is the focus of all that admirations Who
is the center of that glittering company?n
1t Is Jesus, the champion of all worlds, the
| favorite of all ages. Do you know what
is the first question the soul viii ask when
| 1t comes through the gate of heayens I
think the first question viii be: "Where
| is Jesus, the Saviour that pardoned NV
sin; that carried my sorrows; that fought
my battles; that won my victories?'' o
radiant Onel how would like to see Theel
Thou OF the manger, but without its
humiliation; Thou of the cross, but with
out its pangs; Thou of the grave. but
without its darkness.
The Bible intimates that we will talk
with Jesus in heaven just as a brother
talks with brother. Now, what will
you ask him first1 do not know. lean
think what would ask Paul first, if saw
him in heaven / think / would like to
hear him describe the storm that came
upon the ship when there were 275 souls
on the vessel, Paul being the only man on
board cool enough to describe the storm.
There IS a fascination about ship and the
sea that shall never get over, and think
l would like to hear him talk about that
nrst But when l meet my Lord Jesus
Christ, of what shall first delight to hear
Him speak, Now l think what it is. I
shall hrst want to hear the tragedy of his
last hours; and then Luke's account of the
crucihxion, and Marks account of the
crucifixion, and Johns account of the cru
cifixion will be nothing, while from the
living lips of Christ the story shall be told
OF the gloom that fell, and che devils that
arose, and the fact that upon his
endurance depended the rescue of a race;
and there was darkness in the sky, and
there was darkness in the soul, and the
pain became more sharp, and the burdens
became more heavy, until the mob began
to swim away from the dying vision of
Christ, and the cursing of the mob came
to his ear more family, and his hands
were fastened to the horizontal piece of